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Jun 4, 2010

June Savings - Week 1

One week down! How'd we do?

Carole

Spending our 3-day "School is Out!" vacation camping in Santa Barbara, CA instead of staying in a hotel. Camping for 3 days is $47.00.

Not buying the year pass at Red Rock State Park for $30 when we went on a bike ride last Monday. We've done that several times in the past and have learned we NEVER go again in the same year! Instead we bought only the $7 day pass. Even if we end up going again, it will take 3 more trips to come close to the price of the annual pass. NO WAY will we go that many times in 12 months.

Janssen

Peeled, diced, and froze the discount butternut squash I bought before it went bad

Used a coupon code to get a free movie from Blockbuster Express

Found a recipe to use up the rest of my fresh spinach instead of letting it go to waste

Sold about 30 books at a used bookstore and dedicated the money to our entertainment budget

Returned empty printer cartridge for recycling and store credit

Mailed in rebate worth $10

Submitted a rebate for $2 through Rite-Aid online

Merrick

Made two loaves of homemade bread. These should last me three weeks, so that's a few bucks I save on store-bought bread

Dug through my drawer and found a $5 off coupon for Babies R Us. We were going to go the day before, but I thought I might have a coupon so I waited a day and saved $5!

Went to Old Navy (I had a $5 off $25 coupon), and didn't use the coupon when I didn't find anything good rather than buying something just so I could use the coupon

Filled up with gas at Sam's Club and saved myself a few cents per gallon (every penny counts with the price of gas skyrocketing!)

What about you? Tell us in the comments what you did this week to save or live frugally!

26 comments:

I also had the $5 off coupon to Old Navy, and I put it clipped in my planner this week because it expired yesterday. I was bummed I didn't make it to Old Navy to look around, but it's probably best I didn't because I surely would have ended up spending more when I didn't need anything to begin with!

1. Finished my budget on Mint.com so I can track what I spend.2. Made home-made bread.3. Stayed within my grocery budget by putting only what I need in my cart.4. Didn't take all the kids out to lunch even though I was really tired and I didn't want to make them lunch :).5. Thought about using coupons;).6. Took all four kids to the library for some free entertainment.7. I donated a ton of stuff to DI while cleaning out the garage and got a receipt so we can deduct it on our taxes.8. I am thinking about Christmas gifts so I can make them or buy them at a better price.9. Tried out Baking Soda in my laundry (I think it worked great).10. Started reading The Not So Big House, for future savings ideas.Thanks to all three of you for inspiring me to even think about these sorts of things!!!

I was bummed reading this because I couldn't think of anything, but Janssen saved me- I sent in a $20 rebate this week- yea!! I also updated our budget (does that count?) Thanks so much, this is fun to have a weekly review.

1. Did not order a better camera lens2. Went back to the store to get the coupon deal we SHOULD have gotten the first time around and came back with cold, hard cash in the amountof $6.69. Boom.3. Forewent a banana for lunch yesterday

I took the kids to the Children's Museum instead of the zoo because we already have an annual pass. Actually, the annual pass was $90, which I split with my sister and her 3 kids so I only spent $45 on the pass. This equals about 1.5 times visiting the museum at full price. We've already been 5 times (this was about 2 months ago.) So that part wasn't this week but it's still paying off!

We got back on the Mint.com bandwagon and are keeping better tabs on our spending. (Again.)

Eric also worked for twenty-four hours straight, had a five-hour break and then worked for thirty-four hours straight. Plus he picked up a side-job helping his aunt in her garden. It will help make up for all of our moving expenses such.

1. Used coupons at the grocery store for the first time ever!2. Stuck to my grocery budget3. Put away this month's portion towards our life insurance policy due in December (I don't want to have to decide between paying for our policy or Christmas gifts when December rolls around :) and I won't have too )4. Cooked a freezer meal (I didn't make it this week, but it was sure nice to not have to make dinner the other night!)

More seriously, I cleaned out my freezer and ate from there for a week instead of discovering whatever was inside about 2 months after it went bad. And I bought stuff at the grocery store that was on sale. But I do that every week.

1) I bought a huge lot of maternity clothes on eBay. This will alleviate me having to go and buy new clothes.

2) Found a coupon code for a new health and beauty site. Bought a huge pack of Huggies Snug and Dry diapers for a total of $1.68.

3) Did not take the kids out to eat any night this week. My husband was out of town and I was really tired and didn't feel like cooking at all. But we settled for some easy meals that didn't take too long for me to prepare.

4) We had playgroup at my house this week instead of at Chick Fil A. This didn't save us too much money this time, because I made lunch for all the people. However, next week when we go to the another's home instead of Chick Fil A, it will save us then.

Well, I've been sick all week so I haven't really been spending or buying anything much. I did get some hand me downs from a friend for my little boy instead of buying him brand new clothes. I also used priceline.com and their bid program and spent the weekend (through Monday, so I think it counts) at a hotel for WAY less than what we normally would have spent. Oh, we also bought cereal for cheap and got some milk and ate breakfast in our hotel room each morning instead of spending money at a restuarant or something.

-My niece and nephew’s are coming up and instead of buying them this really cool human hamster ball that they had at Costco for 40$ I made their gifts from materials that I already had around for the additional cost of $1.50. While the hamster ball is way cooler my hair clips and music bag turned out awesome!

-I made my lunch everyday this week. While I always do this, everyone else I work with goes to the corner deli and spends $9-14 on sandwiches. I thought it was worth mentioning for week one.

-Seth and I went for Pink Berry yogurt (mmm….) and I had a punch card that got us a free one. Sweet!

NICE! We went to San Diego this week and stayed with VERY gracious friends instead of a hotel- FREE! plus our gracious hosts also cooked us dinner twice- saving us nearly $50-$60! packed a picnic for the zoo instead of spending $20 on lunch too! Our dear friends also took our dog for us instead of paying for a kenell (we got them a nice giftcard as a thank you) but stillloads cheaper than a kennel! We also ate IN this entire week! I'm super proud so far! stocked up on diet coke (my hubby's lifeline) for 48 cans for $10- cheapest price all year! cheaper than sams! We have a tight budget to work with until I start work again in august- but we have changed our frivlous ways forever! we will be debt free soon (hopefully!) and plan to keep saving where we can!

This week was my birthday. The son of one of my husbands patients wanted to show Will there gratitude and said we could come to the restraunt he works at for a free dinner. The restraunt was Charlie Palmers Steakhouse at the Four Seasons. Dinner was $214, but was completely FREE for us. We ate in all week except for that awesome free night. I stayed on our food budget all week and did not give into my temptation to buy lunch out at work. Tonite we are going to the movies (with our FREE movie tickets weve been saving for a night out).

I got a new job where I am going to be working until about 8 at night, and since I go to school in the morning, I don't have time to make dinner. Now I'm going to make the whole week's worth of meals in one day so my husband doesn't decide to go get fast food instead of making himself something:)

-Saved 10 cents/gallon with my fuel rewards-found a book I was looking for at the library . . . free-updated all my finances on mint.com-found a Father's day present for $5-got into the zoo free with my mom's grandma pass-resisted the urge to buy a cool drink at the zoo (forgot my water bottle) and just loaded up at each drinking fountain-borrowed "Invictus" instead of paying $4 to get it from Blockbuster-made home-made pizza for date night-walked to the grocery store instead of driving-clipped a coupon for 28-cent yogurts

1. used mint to track my budget2. asked the cashier at babies r us if she had a spare 20% off coupon lying around that I could use for my purchase...she did!3. Jens and I held a garage sale today selling things we haven't used or worn in the last 6 months, or things we had doubles of, or things we were sick of - and made oodles of money. We are putting it in our future home fund. So fun.4. Bought gas at a Smith's gas station and saved 15 cents per gallon, just for using my free rewards card.5. Only ate out once this week (which, if you have ever lived in the Warnock household is an UNBELIEVABLE feat. Yay for me.)6. Watched a movie at home, that we already had, instead of renting one at Redbox. Even though that is only a dollar saving...its still a dollar!7. Made my sister a wonderful birthday gift with resources we already had at home.

And I completely love this idea of having a weekly review. It really will help us all keep finances and frugality in the front of our brain.

1. I borrowed camping gear from my brother-in-law instead of buying new camping gear for myself, so I could go on a scout overnighter.2. My wife called Enfamil to see about getting a sample of some dairy-free formula that my baby will need after my wife is done breastfeeding. She got the sample and did not have to buy the formula to just "try" it.

The only thing I can think of (that saved money) is that my friend and I didn't do the thrift store rounds this week.

This has been an expensive week. We had our cat spayed so not only was there a bill there were the two round trips to the veterinary's office (a total of 100 miles). Yesterday, I found a box marked "refrigerator". After 3 weeks of sitting in the garage, almost everything in the box had to be thrown away. Then, I was really bad and ordered bread sticks one day and pizza another.

1. I washed my dogs at home instead of having them groomed.2. I signed up with bookmooch.com to swap books for free instead of buying them new.3. I ate lunch at home all week instead of eating out.4. I bought my dad a birthday card only instead of a present because he does not need anthing!5. I fasted from doing any kind of spending one day this week.